Learning to Fly
by KaleidoscopeKreation
Summary: She was trying to fly but she couldn't find wings... then he came along and he changed everything. Happy Birthday to Safia Bara - this is for you.


**Learning to fly**

**For Safia Bara**

_Shuff... shuff... shuff..._

A girl was walking along a path. She was wearing a pair of new, lace-up shoes, blue in colour, which she was regarding with a sort of meditative half-interest. It was autumn, and with every step, she kicked up a small flurry of fallen leaves. They were every shade of brown and orange, and freshly fallen, so that the wet ground had not yet soaked through them and dulled their colour.

She kicked a little harder, admiring the flutter and rasp of the leaves, and the contrast between their russet colour and the blue of her shoes...

Just then, she stumbled. She gave a gasp, stood for a few seconds, and then carried on, faster, in spite of the slippery ground. She had been going far too slowly.

There was no point in dragging her feet. She might be nervous, but she wouldn't want to be late, either, would she?

_I've never gone with the wind  
Just let it flow  
Let it take me where it wants to go..._

Lettuce was trapped. Trapped between excitement of seeing them again, and hammering, unquenchable nerves.

She knew that _he _would be there. Ichigo said that Kisshu had made a special point of telling her so.

Another leaf detached itself from the tree, gliding down with unsurpassable grace to join the hundreds already on the ground. Lettuce watched its progress enviously. It was free. She wasn't. _She _wasstuck between a rock and a hard place, with a step in either direction near impossible.

There were butterflies and questions of equal proportions, fluttering and hammering inside her. She had to see him again... but the prospect was so daunting she could barely put one foot in front of another. The thought of actually having those questions answered...

_...Til' you opened the door  
And there's so much more  
I'd never seen it before..._

It had been just over three years. And finally, they'd been able to return.

Of course, they were famous back on their planet. She had heard as much from the accounts that Ichigo and Pudding had given. They had saved the whole race! – it was hardly surprising. That was where she was going now, to meet them at the Cafe she had worked at for so long. The three alien heroes which she herself had fought – albeit reluctantly – countless times. Kisshu, Taruto, and... _  
_

Lettuce had to swallow before she could even think his name. It gave her peculiar _woosh_ing feeling, as though she had moved somewhere very high, very fast, and somehow left her stomach behind.

Pai-san.

_I was tryin' to fly but I couldn't find wings  
But you came along and changed everything..._

You lift my feet off the ground  
You spin me around  
You make me crazier, crazier  
Feels like I'm falling and I  
I'm lost in your eyes  
You make me Crazier, Crazier, Crazier...  


Lettuce closed her eyes. She must be going mad. This certainly felt the opposite of normal – she had been feeling like this every time she thought of Pai since she had heard he was coming.

Why did she feel this way?

Maybe it was because the last time she had seen him, he had just come back to life after taking a fatal blast... one that had been meant for her.

There had been no time to explain, to say anything at all. All Lettuce had were her memories, and the endless theories chasing themselves around her head until the small hours of the morning.

'Maybe if we had been born in a different era...' he had said. Then, he had back-tracked. _Maybe what?_

He had been lying dead, a trickled of dark liquid running from his mouth, his pale eyelids closed. Lettuce herself had been so tired she could barely move, but her body had still shaken with quiet sobs of inexorable grief. _Why?_

And then... then, he had stood in front of her, and the others, and even with the chaos all around, Lettuce had felt so safe. He had turned to her, with white light framing his face like a halo, his features caught in sharp relief. And then – he had _smiled. _And she had known that he was smiling just for her. 

_I watched from a distance as you  
Made life your own  
Every sky was your own kind of blue  
And I wanted to know how that would feel  
And you made it so real_

Lettuce had never truly witnessed beauty until that moment. And even though she had thought her life would be over within seconds, she had experienced a surge of unquenchable joy, so fierce it was almost pain.

Even the echo of that, felt through the fuzzy veil of memory, made her feel giddy and caused the world to sparkle. There was only one way this feeling could make sense, and that didn't make any sense _at all... _if it were true... _  
_

_You showed me something that I couldn't see  
You opened my eyes and you made me believe..._

You lift my my feet off the ground  
You spin me around  
You make me crazier, crazier  
Feels like I'm falling and I  
I'm lost in your eyes  
You make me crazier, crazier, crazier...

'Lettuce?'

She stopped so abruptly that she nearly fell over.

There, floating a few feet in front of her, was –

It took her a few moments until she was able to speak. 'Pai... san?'

_  
Baby you showed me what livin' is for  
I don't wanna hide anymore..._

*** * *  
**

It's the same path, she realises. Seven months later, and everything is so different, and yet, the same.

Spring is in its full splendour – half way through May, and pink bouquets of blossom are carpeting the ground, with more petals fluttering down all the time. New, tender green leaves are beginning to unfurl in the canopy, and between them Lettuce can see chinks of bright blue. The whole street seems to glow with new life.

Lettuce is moving along the street, and today, she's running, full of spring high spirits. She's wearing a pair of old, scuffed blue shoes. They're nearly too small for her, now, but she clings to them steadfastly, not wanting to buy new ones. She's rather attached to these shoes. __

Same shoes, same street... same nerves. Even after all this time, her heart still beats faster at the prospect of seeing him. She takes a deep breath and runs faster; she's learnt that getting the waiting over with works best. After that, everything's fine. It suddenly makes sense.

'Lettuce?'

She skids to a stop.

He's there, floating in front of her. Jumping the gun, just like the first time.

'Pai-kun!'

She covers the distance between them in one bound, and envelopes him in a bear hug. Her nerves have melted away.

'I thought I was meant to be meeting you at the Cafe!' she chides him. He smiles sheepishly, and tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear.

'Well, you know me. I couldn't wait to see you. And besides, you might have-'

' "Tripped over, or chickened out, or gotten cornered by those three girls who bully you – why won't you let me take care of them? – or something else just as awful," ' Lettuce finishes the sentence for him, grinning. 'You're so over-protective.'

'Hmph,' Pai sighs, resting his chin on her head. Then he tilts her face up, and smiles. 'But since I'm here now, what do you want to do?'

Lettuce reaches up. He's still taller than her by a good few inches, but not so much as he used to be.

'I don't really care, to be honest, as long as were together,' she says, so only he can hear.

He smiles. 'That was the right answer.'

And then, she feels like she's flying, because he's kissing her.

_You lift my feet off the ground  
You take me away  
You make me crazier crazier  
Feels like I'm falling and I  
I'm lost in your eyes  
You make me crazier, crazier..._

He's teleported them. She's sitting next to him on top of a building, somewhere, the wind is blowing their hair, and the sky is a bright, vibrant blue above them. She rests her head on his shoulder, and feels the spring sunshine warming their skin.

He takes her hand, and she's barely able to believe that this is real. It's crazier than her wildest dreams....

_Crazier, crazier, crazier..._

She's flying every moment now, and because of him, it makes sense.

'I love you.'


End file.
